Google Slides Q&A and the laser pointer

When you are presenting or teaching, it helps to know what your audience is thinking. A little while back I gathered a little round-up of interactive presentation tools. This week, Google Slides announced a very handy new feature.

Slides Q & A allows presenters to accept questions and vote them up or down during a presentation without leaving the Presenter view. Google recently demoed this feature in this video featuring Google Science Fair winner Shree Bose fielding student questions.

I haven’t yet tried it in front of an audience, but here’s a video of my test run.

A few things I am thinking:

I don’t believe the interaction has to be limited to questions. I wonder if the Slides Q&A might be as effective for brainstorming, etc.

It would be kinda wonderful for remote presentations and virtual conferences.

Google also introduced a laser pointer for Slides on the web. Simply locate the laser pointer icon on the bottom toolbar, hover and toggle it on. It will turn from white to red and a red laser-like dot will follow your mouse on the screen

Comments

I’m so excited for this to be available in Google Apps for education. Right now, my workaround is to share my “work” slides with my personal google-self and get these new presentation tools that way. Such a great idea. Love anything that helps capture the thinking in the room…from everyone, not just the hand-raisers!
Thanks for the post,
Sarah

About NeverEnding Search

News, thoughts, and discoveries at the vortex of libraries, literacy, learning, discovery and play. Joyce is an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University's School of Communication and Information, an edtech Sherpa, and a connector. Her interests include: social media curation, digital/media fluency, transliteracy and youth, online communities of practice, digital storytelling and creativity, youth information-seeking behavior, social networking, online learning, and the evolving role and powers of the teacher-librarian.